February 05, 2014

InsideLegal[Tech] New York 2014: Day One Musings

LegalTech NY (LTNY) Day One is in the books. Here some insights and first impressions:

Information Governance … the new eDiscovery?!Our LTNY 2014 word cloud reveals information governance (IG) as the most mentioned theme this year. This comes as no surprise as the adoption of effective IG has become critically important to law firms from a compliance, risk management and efficiency perspective. In turn, law firm clients are looking to see how their outside counsel govern their information in light of increased regulatory requirements for personal health information as well as a bevy of information of big data origins. Based on a few initial vendor conversations today, the lines of eDiscovery (EDD) and information governance are blurring. Established EDD vendors are adding IG tools to the collective toolbox in response to clients’ challenges to establish sound IG frameworks to in turn comply with their clients’ demands. We are particularly looking forward to ARMA’s track and three dedicated sessions focused on ‘IG secrets of successes for strategy and action’. In total, we counted 14 IG-themed sessions and 23 LTNY exhibitors (out of 220) focused on various information governance products and services ranging from secure data storage to email archiving and IG process and workflow management.

LTNY Exhibitors ... A closer Look: We have long tracked and reported on the trend of eDiscovery vendors taking over LTNY and 2014 is no exception. 85 of the 220 registered vendors (38%) [updated numbers for last minute vendors] touting eDiscovery solutions vs. 41% in 2013. 30 of the 64 sessions (including keynotes and plenaries) are EDD-themed and 11 of those are solely focused on the buzz around predictive coding and technology assisted review (TAR). 65% of the official LTNY educational sponsors are eDiscovery product and service providers. Here’s a closer look at some of the other breakouts:

LexisNexis launches Firm Manager … a new application for law firm practices management in the cloud. The product is designed for small law or independent attorneys and has been in beta for more than a year. Read the full release here.

HP Autonomy Extends eDiscovery Platform to the Cloud: HP Autonomy today announced a new cloud-based eDiscovery offering that provides law firms, partners and small and midsize businesses (SMBs) with a fast, easy and cost-effective path to leverage HP Autonomy’s market-leading eDiscovery platform. Read the full release here.